Giuliani: tax cuts + tax cuts = balance
By Steve Benen Thursday Sep 20, 2007 8:31pm
Once in a while, Rudy Giuliani appears so confused, one really has to wonder why he’s even running for president.
Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani said Friday that the alternative minimum tax — which is expected to generate as much as $1 trillion over the next 10 years — could be eliminated over the long term by balancing it out with even more tax cuts.
Giuliani’s remarks prompted a bewildered response from his audience of technology executives. Both Republicans and Democrats said they assumed that the candidate must have misspoke as he responded to a question about the tax and its affect the middle class.
This reflects the sophistication of a small child who picked up a copy of the Weekly Standard, and hoped to make sense of what he didn’t understand. Eliminating the AMT would cost billions. Additional tax cuts would cost billions more. Trying to strike a “balance” this way is like trying to put out a fire with kerosene.
As Kevin Drum put it, we’re apparently dealing with a “buffoon.”
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Dems,don't immediately "assume he misspoke" fer christsakes...
You say:"this is the kind of colossal boob you want for president?"
In other news, Nelson Mandela is dead.
Idiot.
Well, we're safe then. Who can imagine a buffon being elected president in this country?
with all the tax cuts and this war with all the no bid contracts............where are they going to get all this money from?OH...that's right.......they'll just rob the SS....oh yeah....we're fucked.
Anything to get elected.
gotta keep an eye on Romney.
"So you have no frame of reference here, Donny. You're like a child who wanders into the middle of a movie..."
did he stop everything and take a call from his wife?
real classy.
Giuliani has a great theory there.
Let's just keep cutting taxes until there aren't any at all. Then the government will have more money than it's ever had; healthcare for all; education through college; no poverty.
I want some of what Giuliani is smoking.
Great pic of Rudolf.
"oy vey I'm such a schmuck".
abarts @ 9:
Which one?
Yes all those tax cuts do wonders for the infrastructure..
Did everybody hear how Bush hid legislation inside the senate bill that pardons himself and all others in his administration for war crimes, torture, committed since 9/11/01?
The equivalent would be Clinton retro- pardoning himself for any blow jobs he had while president.
Oh yeah, George has something to say "The United States doesn't torture people."
Every bumbling move Guliani makes brings hims closer to the presidency.
FTA But the tax was never indexed for inflation. It now applies to more than 4 million taxpayers and has been the target of tax reformers who say it will soon unfairly target middle-class taxpayers, if it hasn't already.
Has any politician suggested to adjust the AMT? Seems like a simple enough solution.
Ghouliani reminds me of Gollum...with a set of mail order dentures.
The guilt could be mounting in this man's head over the continuing death toll brought on by telling the "heroes" or first responders that it was a-okay to breath in the toxic air surrounding the 9/11 ground zero crime site. I mean there was dust there just filled with toxins and carcinogens. No one should have said that was safe to breathe. Otherwise these Neo-Cons might be coming to the realization that their trip is up. They can't govern. They aren't fooling the people. And their plans are failing miserably. Maybe that is why Bush talked even less coherently at his last press conference and why Rudy Juiliani's stress is causing him to have trouble putting thoughts together? Who knows, but I sure hope their gig is up. We have a lot of reparations to make.
Our fiscal deficit is the largest in world history. How are tax cuts going to fix that?
Well...at least Rudy knows how to generate the funds that Bush's war has cost us...by cutting taxes more. If anyone needed any more evidence that the Republicans are out of touch with average Americans, Rudy serves it up on his
silverplatinum platter. Bush's war costs billions of dollars each month, yet he preserves his tax cuts. Rudy proposes we fix this by cutting taxes more. And I'm sure that Rudy's cuts would benefit middle and lower class Americans, right? Unlikely at best. The gap between the rich and everyone else keeps growing, and it will continue to do so as long as 40% of voters continue to vote against their best interest.Ghouliani would make such an awesome fascist dictator...
For an American who can actually speak intelligently and coherently... Check out this video of Keith Olbermann's special comment from last night.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092107A.shtml
abarts @ 9:
On Tucker tonight(yeah...go figure) He said it has been happening at quite a few of his speeches........and it repulsed him too...again ...go figure.
Giuliani + Self Agrandizement = Giuliani
Hard to tell the difference between the republican candidates and an ugly dog contest.
Thompson would probably win the ugly dog contest.
The Old Mind isn't as sharp as it used to be eh Rudy?
I saw Bill Maher on "Larry King Live" recently. He mentioned how Repugs are always saying "Democrats will raise your taxes". Maher went on to say that "Republicans raise taxes too, but they lie about it. They raise them in the form of deficits".
Eventually, someone has to raise taxes, in order for the country to climb out of the hole.
PS - Giuliani is a turd!
Curtilingus @ 14:
Bill Moyers had one of the attorneys formerly of the Bush admin on his show last week. According to the lawyer, that was the biggest concern of the administration - immunity from prosecution for torture and acting above international law!
Speaking of presidential candidates Dennis Kucinich will be on Jay Leno tonight!
As for George and Guiliani - what can we say? God help us.
Curtilingus @ 14:
Which Senate bill!?!
GonzoD @ 26:
not a turd , massive ammounts of turds!
Rudi makes too much to be subject to the alternative minimum income tax, small wonder why he's confused about its implications.
it might help if you did a little more research into the actual event: what was the full context of giuliani's statement? did everyone react in the way described, or only 45% of poeple?
The GOP hates fiscal responsibility.
The man is easily distracted - he was wondering which dress he was going to wear that evening and whether or not he had matching pumps and matching lipstick.
*
tyree @ 30:
LMAO tyree!!
When I think of massive amounts of turd, I tend to think of the whole GOP!!
I guess Rudy didn't get his "A" in cutting taxes!
A very nice likeness of Giulia ~~
*
mahers still a douchbag
If the topic isn't 9/11, he's got nothing; clueless.
That guy was clearly a major league asshole back when he was mayor.
Rudy and the Pinochet cult don't care if they bankrupt a country. They'll just move to another country and live off their Swiss bank accounts
If you think Bush doesn't care about Civil Liberties, wait 'til you see Rudy!
All Republican economics is voodoo economics, by definition. It is never anything more than a set of rationalizations for theft of the people's assets. This fascist numbnuts is so inept that he can't even get the most basic GOPer economic talking points out of his piehole without fucking them up. He ought to stick with the shit he knows: Lipstick, makeup, pantyhose...
it's the new math!
QuestionGirl @ 44:
New math, or Fuzzy Math?
hey questiongirl stll banning folks on the old we kiss israels ass blog!
Thing Fish @ 15:
Thanks for raising an important issue. The AMT is out of control, and needs to be fixed.
With more tax cuts. KIDDING!
I think Giuliani has a real chance to win the presidency. He's at least as sadistic, ignorant, and intellectually lazy as Dubya, but his accent doesn't make him sound nearly as stupid.
[...] suppose to report it just keeps coming up again and again. Friday, September 21, Steve Benen here flags something Rudolph Giuliani said where Giuliani “appears so confused, one really has to [...]
have democrats admitted they will raise taxes? you know they will, and they ought to. its the fiscally responsible thing to do
Rudy did not misspeak. It is an article of republican faith, often repeated, that lowering taxes raises revenues by stimulating economic activity. It can happen in some bizarre situations when taxes are extremely high but almost all of the time the claim is bullshit, as in this instance.
As everyone knows, Bush's idiotic tax policies have created massive deficits. Most people probably don't know that under Bush more money has been borrowed (foreign) than all previous American presidents... combined.
Darrel,
What you are talking about is the Laffer Curve which says that there is a certain point in taxation where it begins to stiffle the economy (which I subscribe to). The shellgame occurred when Bush's tax cuts ended up being skewed to the upper 2% of earners. If you want to stimulate the economy, you have to weight the cuts toward the middle class and not the upper 2%.
Neocon comic-strip yap-puppet Bruce Tinsley, in his godawful Mallard Fillmore strip*, pushes this nonsense all the time. In his 4-14-07 strip, he declares that JFK, Reagan, and Georgie "all INCREASED tax revenue by CUTTING tax RATES!!," apparently confident that the caps and extra exclamation point would sell such a counterintuitive idea. (He then proceeds to describe people who don't "get" this as idiots. There is no source cited, no explanation, no mention of a Laffer Curve. It's simply: cut income and income increases!!!1)
Frankly, the Underpants Gnomes made a better case.
*Feel free to join us at "Duck And Cover" to mock Mallard Fillmore daily.
http://duckcover.blogspot.com/
[...] prophecy. Like Bush, Rudy Giuliani must have also gotten mediocre grades in Econ 101 because he seems to think that we would be able to balance tax cuts with even more tax cuts. I don’t know about you but [...]
timezoned @ 4:
You mean like the one we now have?
OOps, he wasn't elected. :(
Hmm, Rudy, a negative plus a negative equals a positive, huh? In case you were planning on going on the TV show Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader, don't waste your time.
Har, har! Rudi went before the NRA yesterday and told them that 9/11 changed his mind on citizen ownership of assault rifles. Presumably, 10,000 AK47s in the streets of NYC would have kept the towers intact? What a totally insincere Tool Rudi is.
I wouldn't be surprised if he showed up at Dobson's megachurch to denounced the Pope and started speaking in tounges! The man is power mad.
I wonder how the Democratic Candidates feel about this. If the GOP runs Rudy or Frederick of Hollywood, then whichever Dem candidate survives the Primaries is going to be President. Period!
Once in a while, Rudy Giuliani appears so confused, one really has to wonder why he’s even running for president.
We can all thank President Dazed & Confused, the modern Republican Party, the Neocons, and the modern self proclaimed conservative movement for lowering the bar for acceptance of a "leader" so inept as to decide shit based on no or incomplete knowledge of the subject (Sunni? Shia? What's that) and who's easily manipulated in his simple mindedness and simple passions by his supposed underlings toward actions he's barely able to comprehend.
Intelligence and judgment have been ruled out by our modern MS media and the goofy punditocracy. Manly posture & odor and a strong reliance on gut instinct is all that's needed in our rulers and those dancing toward the thrown. A PhD is occasionally accepted as long as you've got long military history and enough medals to overcome the otherwise defect in character (only girly men need to think through problems and seek solutions).
Modern men of substance invade, bomb and kill and have absolutely no regard for the terrible suffering of the poor sucker foreigners unable to get out of the way. Modern leaders of great gutteral fortitude aren't smart but don't blink at condemning hundreds of thousands to death and misery while telling his own subjects and their children to suck on it. Modern leaders have the capacity to wrap themselves in the honor of the nation's warriors while sticking the shiv in their backs (how long before we hear about another 3 month Iraq tour extension).
Given the modern Republican bar setting, McCain fits the mold better than Gugliani. Rudy's too sharp, in a criminal mind way, and would want too much and act too often on his own - too independent of the party.
Ah, the imagery. Guiliani's logic causes pictures of Escher paintings, Mobius strips and Klein bottles to dance in my head.
Still waiting for Rudy to explain how he could have had foreknowledge that twin towers would not remain standing ? Is he a structural engineer ? clairvoyant ? insider ? or just a lucky guess ?
Giuliani is clearly in need of a brush-up of basic macroeconomic class.
GO BACK TO SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There's plenty of money for infrastructure in the trust funds set up to finance projects. Well, except for the fact that politicians are continuously robbing them (and the SS trust fund) to finance all their bullshit. Then when bridges collapse, they turn around and say we have to raise taxes to pay for the bridge. NO! You already taxed us to pay for the infrastructure but you blew that money. You already taxed us for education and you have a lottery, and then you say there isn't money for education? What the hell did you spend the money on?
Darrel @ 51:
Actually, you could keep taxes the same and use some of the unrobbed money to fund public works projects. This creates jobs and stimulates the economy.
(Oh, but that's "socialism." Can't have that. Gotta have high deficits and no-bid contracts for big companies. But that's not socialism, of course.)
Charles @ 52:
The funny thing about the Laffer curve and people who use it:
Conservatives claim to be for small government and low taxes.
Conservatives claim that you can actually increase government revenue by lowering taxes.
If you are for small government, why would you want to increase revenue?
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